Disposable absorbent articles are well known for their utility in aiding in the containment of body exudates including urine, menses, and feces. As such these articles take various forms including diapers, pull-on training pants, incontinence garments, and sanitary napkins. One important feature for each of these articles is conforming fit. It is imperative that these articles conform to the portion of the body that acts as the anchor to hold the article in place during wear. It is widely known that provision of an elastic portion of such an article serves well to engage the article to a wearer's body.
Conventional disposable absorbent articles have included strand elastics and elastomeric films to serve this engaging function in various areas of the articles. These areas include at the leg opening, the waist opening, the outer cover, and side panels (which are typically elasticized). In particular, when an elastomeric film is typically employed as an elastic member, it includes an elastomeric core layer flanked by substantially inelastic skin layers on opposing sides or surfaces. These inelastic skin layers, when stretched, allow for reduced friction and blocking of the overall film. This reduced blocking aids in increasing the processsability of the film as well as providing an increased softness to touch of the film which is desirable when the wearer's skin comes in contact with the area of the article that includes the film. This approach, however, requires additional polymers to form the skin layers and these bring in additional costs for manufacturing.
Another approach which allows for the manufacture of an elastic laminate includes the use of a release liner with a single layer elastomeric film. In the instance described above as well as in the case of a release liner, possible raw materials for this elastomeric film are elastomers, SBS block copolymers, SIS block copolymers, polyurethane, ethylene copolymers and similar materials. As one would expect, in the absence of one or more inelastic skin layers, the elastomeric films are relatively sticky and hard to handle during processing. In order to facilitate conversion as a roll of stock material, a release liner has to be added which covers at least on one side the elastomeric layer. The release liner can be made from a number of materials, including but not limited to silicone paper. When further converting the film material, in most instances the release liner is separated from the elastomeric film, removed, and wound up for disposal or re-use. Only then may the elastomeric film be laminated to a nonwoven web that is friendlier to the skin of the ultimate wearer of a product containing the film. It is clear that the handling of an elastomeric monofilm or single layer film paired with a release liner is very time-consuming and requires additional costly equipment. Moreover, elastomeric monofilms show high elastic elongations in the machine direction and are even stretched in the machine (or longitudinal) direction at a high laminating speed. After adhesion of the elastomeric monofilm to the nonwoven web, most of the tension in the resulting laminate dissipates. This leads to an uncontrolled and undesired fold formation of the laminate.
Due to the formation of these undesirable folds in the laminate as a result of this process as well as the difficult handling of the elastomeric monofilm with a release liner, a need still remains that allows for facilitated processing of single layer elastomeric films with fewer pieces of manufacturing capital and ultimately reduced operating expense.